Sometimes the world just feels like “you’re in a trough”. In this punchy new stand up show, reflecting on the collective tumult of the past few years, Josie Long returns in her comedic element.

The backdrop to her set is starkly political. Her new flat in Glasgow comes after years of hopping around London in rented flats that were only getting “smaller and more expensive”. Living in this city with its radical political past, she feels like she has an opportunity to finally be useful to her community.

And she can finally be the bougie one. With physical comedy, she mocks herself for sending one of her children to Forest School in Glasgow where there are “a hundred different types of rain”. She knows her audience too, wittily characterising a city where most people working here write the dictionary.

Throughout, Long pays attention to detail. She delightfully introduces herself on the tannoy before she walks on stage, and employs a cardboard cut-out of a policeman at the end to escort her off it. Recurring motifs such as her unlikely skill for recalling adverts with precision and clarity at the expense of precious memories from maternity leave with her young baby have the audience right behind her.

As the set continues, her political imploration gets more direct, more urgent. Long acknowledges the conflict she feels, wanting to use her platform to shine a light on policies that are undermining people’s welfare and rights, whilst also wanting to be 'good vibes!'. She manages this deftly, with rich and colourful skits, as well as using interruptions like booming May Ball fireworks to her comedic gain. When someone in the audience makes a slightly ill-judged decision to leave early by walking across the stage rather than sneaking around it, she suggests that everyone needs their time in the limelight. “Who else wants to have a go?”

The last time I saw Long on stage was in 2019, when she spoke passionately about Arts Emergency, a charity she co-founded which provides mentoring and support networks to help young people flourish in the creative industries. One of the aims, she explained with characteristic insight, is to “foster entitlement” to careers in the arts, a quality which seems to be cultivated by certain institutions and networks that aren’t accessible to everyone. Long has never passively accepted the injustice she sees in the world. With verve, compassion, and laughter, she urges us not to accept it either.